Peterborough City Council told it is not doing enough to encourage BAME applicants for senior roles

Labour group leader, Cllr Shaz Nawaz asked what more could be done at this week’s (July 29) online Full Council meeting.

Cllr Mohammed Farooq Cabinet Member for Digital Services and Transformation, siad: “When filling out application forms for positions at the council, the box for ethnicity is optional and therefore we don’t have any specific figures.

“However, I believe this council has demonstrated through sanctions over many years its support of equality, diversity, integration and cohesion.

“We review the council’s policies, procedures and practices on a regular basis with a view to ensuring they’re inclusive and non-discriminatory to all people.

“Clearly, recruitment of directors very much depends on who applies with such applications for senior roles being small in number.

“It would therefore be very difficult to force people of BAME origin to apply for jobs here at any level.

“However, I would be happy to sit down with Cllr Nawaz and our Head of HR and Chief Executive to discuss this issue.”

Cllr Nawaz said: “The issue that I have with the statement that you’ve just shared is that it clearly demonstrates that enough isn’t being done.

“Just by saying that people from the BAME community aren’t applying isn’t enough – we need to look at the reason why they aren’t applying and what we can do differently to have senior officers at the council.

“I know from the conversations that you and I have had in the past that we both agree that organisations should reflect the communities which they serve; at the moment that isn’t the case.

“I know that people sometimes say ‘oh well you’ll get the best person for the job’, but we’ve got plenty of talented people in the BAME community like our Mayor here tonight, Cllr Gul Nawaz, The Mayor of London, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, The Home Secretary and many others.

“So, what are you going to do to create a culture and an environment, Cllr Farooq, so that when I ask you this question next year you can give me some tangible results?”

Cllr Farooq responded: “This is a not just a matter of responsibility for me and you, but for others to sit together and encourage more BAME people to come forward and apply for the director jobs and I would be happy to promote that.

“However, just looking at the statistics of the city council, out of the 1,016 people employed, 130 of them are BAME.

“If you look at this city’s council and how many members of the Cabinet are BAME it is a high number; but we want very much to reflect this throughout.”